The train was filled with middle- aged men and women. Somewhere in the middle cabin, a sweat drenched Arus Arcliner was desperately hanging on to the grip bars while taking care not to knock into the people around him due to his irregular swaying. Arus begin to feel awkward, as he had accidentally knocked into an old lady a moment ago. She was not the 14 years old’s first unlucky “victim” but the twentieth in that hour.

Suddenly, a familiar music echoed along the row of speakers located on the roof of the train before an announcement was made.

“NW76- Grand bergs station”.

Within seconds, Arus had scrambled off the train but not before knocking into another person. Arus heaved a breath; after all he was too glad to be able to get out of that embarrassing situation alive. If not for the remedial and extra- activities being held in school even though it was the holidays, life wouldn’t be so tough but the boy was an optimistic character so he thought, “Life could be tougher…” and with that, left the station for home.

After leaving the station, Arus ran along the pavement leading to his house that was quite a distance away from the station since no other transport could lead him there. But as he ran, the lights of the street- lamps along the same route begin to flicker as if they were waving at the boy who was oblivious to all these…

As Arus reached his destination, he noticed a huge and massive- looking figure waving at him from the distance. Compared to the boy, the male figure was simply gigantic but luckily for him, the man was someone his father was quite familiar with and wouldn’t hurt him since he was no trespasser. He was the middle- aged security guard, which guarded the entire building. Arus sometimes wondered why a young person like him would decide to work as a security guard but he never pondered over it for long. Arus did not return the guard’s wave; there was no need to. The boy wasn’t a sociable person by nature and wouldn’t communicate with anybody unless totally necessary and he was simply too tired to even raise his hand after that entire tedious running.

After entering the lift, Arus waited patiently as the doors close slowly in front of him. As the lift begin to ascend the building, he felt a rising pain on his legs that caused him to grimace. “Looks like I need more regular training” Arus thought as he sat down while leaning against the wall of the lift hoping to lessen the intense pain that was beginning to spread to a seemingly larger area.

Suddenly, the entire lift blacked out. “Darn-”, Arus cursed “, the stinking lift broke down again”. After a desperate effort in banging the doors didn’t seem to help, Arus calmed down to think since panicking did nothing to improve the situation. “ Supposedly, I’m required to be looking for this weird button that has a bell shaped sign on top though somebody had doodled a stickman on it so it’s a button with a stickman+ bell shaped icon… but how am I suppose to find it in the darkness where I can’t even see my own hand… damn… do I have to use that again… but I could still use my hand phone. There’s absolutely no way I can allow myself to use that” Arus thought to himself while groping around for his sling- bag while still sitting on the same spot.

“Found it!” Arus thought since he felt the smooth material of his converse bag against his palms. After much rummaging, Arus managed to find his hand phone, which was deeply buried under the mess of his bag. He quickly clicked a button causing the screen of the phone to light up. The light was rather dim, but it was enough for Arus to find the retard- looking button and click it. Then, a screeching alarm sounded through the entire building informing the guard that some unlucky guy got stuck in the lift.

Meanwhile, Arus was staring at the shining screen which now displays a series of words: Attention! Low Battery alert! Arus knew he had no other choice; he have to do that.

Arus held the lighted screen between his palms, covering his source of light and whispered a word… the word… Elīgēhātē... An immense glow emerged from Arus’s palm as a sphere of light took shape replacing the hand phone which had dropped onto the floor. Arus was panting heavily, as he stared into the ball of golden light, which had flooded the entire lift in place of the darkness. This move required a great deal of energy and concentration from the user and Arus having been weary after running earlier was enormously worn out and as quickly as it came, the light disappeared and the boy was once more plunged into the darkness.

Arus couldn’t see a thing but he knew that he had not succeed in prolonging that as he was simply too tired… too tired… so tired that his whole body was sprawling on the floor of the lift. But there was one last thing that Arus haven’t attempt but this would result in immense and unbearable pain for the next 12 hours but he was too desperate… so desperate to see within the darkness that nothing mattered… anymore…

Arus could control light ever since the day he became twelve, the day he entered adulthood. Nothing explained anything to him since nobody knew, neither his friends nor family but in the first place… nobody cared. Arus had always been alone or so it seems. He just doesn’t know, doesn’t comprehend and doesn’t understand anything.

Arus placed his left palm over his eyes and whispered the words. These words simply appeared in his head, nobody taught the boy anything about this after all...

Bēelītēzēta ūesīōen. The world turned to an immediate white with occasional black linings. In this world, everything that emits light turns a darkish gray while those that don’t emit any light turn white. Since almost everything seen in the world are simply due to light reflected into the eye, majority of the things seen using this pair of eyes are white.

Sweat ran down Arus’s face as he flinched, the price to pay for using this technique… unimaginable pain for the next 12 hours. Arus had experienced this pain when he first tried out this move but this pain was added on to the pain he already felt on his legs and his extremely tired self. Arus could tolerate no more and with a thud, his head, which he had managed to hold up using his entire willpower, till this moment, landed on the ground.